Arsenal and Tottenham circling as contract talks between Manchester City and Jadon Sancho collapse

Manchester City risk losing one of their most exciting academy jewels with Jadon Sancho refusing to sign a new contract at the Etihad Stadium.

According to both Martin Blackburn of The Sun and Jack Pitt-Brooke of The Independent, Arsenal and Tottenham are both watching with interest and could move to take the 17-year-old back to London.

City have offered Sancho a huge contract for a player of his age, worth £30,000-a-week, a sign of just how highly he is rated by club staff. But Sancho has still not put pen to paper, believing he could play first-team football sooner at another club and fearing his pathway to Pep Guardiola’s first-team is blocked.

Sancho is thought to be open to a move back to London and Tottenham wanted to include him in the Kyle Walker deal, but City resisted and will try everything to hold on to Sancho.

Signed from Watford in 2015 for £500,000, the skillful Sancho has shone for both City’s youth teams and England, but perhaps paying for the lack of young players promoted to the first-team in recent years, the Blues now risk losing a talent with genuine potential to break through in future.

Sancho is still under contract and there is no hurry for City to renew his deal, but if he is truly unhappy then it may be just a matter of time before he moves. In addition to Arsenal and Spurs, famed German talent-spotters RB Leipzig are interested and a swap deal for Germany under-17 central midfielder Erik Majetschak was recently mooted.

Speculation about Sancho’s future intensified this week when he was left out of Pep Guardiola’s squad for the pre-season tour of the US, despite the inclusion of several youngsters including Brahim Diaz and Phil Foden. Jadon has also deleted all but one photo from his Instagram account yesterday.